Hairy Pupper and the Wild Woods
by DarkQuartz
Summary: Prelude to my upcoming Hairy Pupper series. How and why did Harry become a dog? Will he ever find his 'forever home' or will he be a wandering wild dog? Mild abuse in the first chapter. No pairing.


Hairy Pupper

This is going to be a prelude into my Hairy Pupper series, I would like to see how it goes.

Warning: Child abuse in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own two puppies. One is 8 years old and, at the time I write this, the other is 7 months. Both still get into silly antics, together and apart.

Harry was going to be turning 6 years old the summer that his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia decided that they were going out to the countryside for 'some fresh air.' They planned to stay with his Aunt Marge, a fat lady that had the meanest dogs who hated Harry. He didn't want to go and nobody wanted to take him, but his Aunt and Uncle could find nobody who would watch him for an entire month.

Being stuck in the back seat with Dudley was horrible. Dudley wailed when they tried to put him in a car seat, then Aunt Petunia found that he wouldn't fit in it. "My boy is growing up so big!" Harry had heard Uncle Vernon brag. Harry thought Dudley was just too fat.

"Well, Harry can fit in it. Dudley is becoming so grown up that he doesn't need one anymore!" Aunt Petunia exclaimed. "Get in the car seat, boy."

And so Harry had to crawl into the crumb filled smelly chair, but it was better than his other car seat which was the original one Dudley used. That one was not just food stained, it was broken. This one had a buckle that still properly snapped in.

"There better be no funny business at your Aunt's place, boy!" Uncle Vernon had snapped at him through the rear view mirror once they turned out onto the main road. "Otherwise you will be sleeping in the dog kennel!"

Harry wanted to say she wasn't his aunt, but the threat of sleeping with the dogs scared him so he nodded. He was quiet for the three hour car trip, but Dudley kept screaming and throwing stuff. He even broke his brand new musical toy by winding it up too far, then threw it out the window.

"We'll get you a new toy that isn't so cheap when we get there, Duddikins!" Aunt Petunia cooed to settle Dudley down for the final stretch. "Two new toys!"

Aunt Marge's home used to be a farm house, but she had sold off the farm lands and just kept the house with the surrounding area for her dogs. From what Harry understood, the dogs she bred were herd dogs and guard dogs, and she kept the two types in different areas of her land. There was her favorite one called Ripper who was supposed to be a guard dog, but she had trained it to be a house dog that guarded her. In truth, she used Ripper to keep the other dogs in line and attack whoever she wanted.

As they pulled onto the dirt driveway, Harry looked over the overgrown grass and weeds of the huge yard. The front yard alone was larger than their entire property, and he could see some sheep grazing on the other size of the fence that marked property lines.

"GOAT!" Dudley screamed, pointing out the sheep.

"Those are sheep, Duddikins," Aunt Petunia gently corrected. "But they are poor looking sheep, so they do look a bit like goats."

"Scrawny and sickly looking things," Uncle Vernon agreed, then gave Harry a dirty look that made him think it was him that was being talked about. "Get the luggage boy, we're going to greet Aunt Marge."

Harry sighed but did as he was told. Getting the trunks out of the boot was difficult for him, and by the time he got the five heavy pieces out, everyone was in the house. It took another half an hour for him to drag each one to the front door, and he was sweaty, thirty, and tired when he knocked.

"Took you long enough, runt," Aunt Marge greeted when she opened it, then looked at him in disgust. "Go on out back and wash yourself in the hose you filthy boy!"

"But-"

"Ripper!" she shouted, and the threat of the dog made him forget his exhaustion to run out back.

He ignored the growling dogs in the kennels when he started up the hose, relieved that Ripper didn't come with him, then drank his fill before washing his hands and face in the chilly water. The open kitchen window by him let him overhear laughter that was coming from inside as Aunt Marge retold the story about what had just happened. Harry sighed since he knew it would be a horrible summer. He wished someone would come and save him from staying.

It was getting to be sun down before he was finally allowed into the house. Aunt Marge had given him a list of chores to do like picking up the dog poop and oiling the lawn mower. He was to mow the front yard tomorrow, paint the mailbox, then clean the rain gutters. There were more on the chore list, so much more, so Harry knew what he would be doing all month.

* * *

It was almost the third week when something weird happened. Harry was cleaning the yard around the dog kennels when Ripper ran out of the house and came after him. He screamed and climbed up the mesh fence of the kennel then jumped on top of the tin roof of a dog house, but Ripper's attack set off the other guard dogs and Harry was quickly surrounded.

"What did you do to my dogs, boy?!" Aunt Marge shouted at him.

"Nothing! Ripper came out and I had to run!" Harry protested.

"I bet a mean little runt like you kicked my poor dog!" she accused. "Well, you can just stay up there, boy. I won't be giving the command to make them back off!"

"No, please! I'm sorry!" Harry whimpered, but it was too late. She had only called Ripper, then stomped back into the house. He had been left outside to stay with her mean dogs for the whole night.

A few hours into the night had Aunt Marge coming out again. The smells coming from the open kitchen window earlier meant that dinner was over, and she held a dog bowl in one hand and a collar in the other. "Boy, I talked over the problem with Vernon," she sneered. "We decided you'll be living like a dog for the rest of the summer. Get down on your knees and put this on. You'll only eat food from the bowl!"

The dogs that had been waiting for hours perked up and began growling in anticipation. Harry knew they would eat him, so he whimpered and shook his head.

"Get down right now, boy! Or I'll whip you like I do the worst of my dogs!"

The threat of being whipped also scared Harry. Sure, his uncle hit him sometimes, and Aunt Petunia had used a frying pan once, but he had seen the whip in the shed and that thing was scarier than a belt. The dogs below were scarier than a belt too, though. Harry didn't know what to do so he began crying.

"Don't think that will work on me!" Aunt Marge shouted, and when she turned around to go to the shed, Harry panicked.

"Wait!" he yelped, then took a deep breath before dropping to the ground.

When the first dog bit him, he cried out and dropped to his hands and knees. Maybe if he was a dog, they wouldn't attack him. But then Aunt Marge screamed and ran back to the house, and it left Harry outside with the other dogs. His idea seemed to work though - they were just sniffing at him in interest rather than attacking like before.

He tried to sneak away, but he stumbled. This hands and knees had felt funny. He rolled over onto his back to bring his hands to his face, but he saw paws in the air instead. A startled yelp came out instead of a "Help!" and another dog came over to lick his face.

He was a dog! How was he a dog?! It was impossible for him to be a dog, especially since his uncle said there was no such thing as magic! He whined in confusion, and the dog that had been licking him pinned him down with her paw to groom him.

It felt comforting, but he was still panicking. What would his Aunt and Uncle say now?! This wasn't his fault! And his Aunt Marge had seen also!

Harry fell asleep to the sensation of being cuddled on all sides that night, his thoughts in turmoil and dreading his Uncle Vernon, but otherwise feeling safe.

* * *

"What did you do, boy?!" Uncle Vernon shouted first thing in the morning. The sun hadn't even fully come up yet! "Change back right now! Your Aunt Marge thinks she just dreamed what happened, and I warned you no funny business!"

Harry whined when he meant to protest, then he also realized that last night had not been a dream. He got up and felt something brushing his belly, but he paid it no attention as he tried to tell his Uncle Vernon he didn't know what was wrong. A series of yelps and whines came out instead, and he cowered back when his uncle's face started turning purple.

"You freak!" he shouted. "Turn back into a boy right this instance, or I'm taking you out into the woods and leaving you there!"

Harry squeezed his eyes shut and tried his best to think about being a boy, but he was too scared to concentrate. The kennel door was pulled open and he heard his uncle come into the fenced in area.

"Get back," he snarled at the other dogs when they began growling at him, and conditioned to obey large humans, they stayed back. When he went to snatch Harry up though, the dog that had groomed him jumped forward to defend her pup. He shouted when she bit his arm, but he gave her a good kick and sent her flying against one of the dog houses in the kennel. That made all of the other dogs wary of Uncle Vernon, but they still growled at him until he backed out and closed the kennel door.

"Change!" his uncle shouted while shaking him around by the scruff of his neck. The treatment hurt and Harry yelped in pain before trying to squirm out of his uncle's grasp. "Change!"

He tried to protest he couldn't, but howls and yelps game out instead.

"We're going out, you and I," his Uncle snarled. "Then I'm leaving you out there! What's this?"

Uncle Vernon had spotted the collar on the ground his Aunt Marge had dropped along with the dog bowl the night before. "Hairy Pupper, huh?" Uncle vernon read off, the name crudely carved by a knife into the leather. He put it on Harry then dragged him around by it into the car. "If they come looking for you, I'll just tell them you ran off. I'll tell everyone you ran off!"

Harry didn't know who 'they' were, but he figured it was the school. He had no friends since Dudley made sure, and according to them, his Aunt and Uncle were the only family he had. He whined and tried to get away, but his uncle stuffed him in the boot and then locked it before he could get out.

"Time to dump a mutt!" he heard his Uncle Vernon sing. Another car door opened, the car rocked, and then the door shut. Finally the engine started, and Harry knew that wherever he was going, it couldn't be worse than here.

The car ride felt very long in the boot of the car, but since it was still morning, it wasn't terribly hot. He was panting to try to cool off by the time it stopped because his fur was making him feel too warm. When the boot was opened, he tried to dodge the meaty hand reaching for him, but Uncle Vernon got him by his collar and it choked him when he was pulled out by it.

"This is your new home, boy," Uncle Vernon announced. 'If I ever see you as a dog at my house or at your Aunt Marge's I'll take you to the vet and have you put down. Have a nice life!"

Harry watched as his Uncle walked off while laughing, got into his car, then drove off. He was now all alone in the woods, and he had no idea where he was. Even if he could go back, he didn't know how.

A howl of sadness ripped through the air, but there was nobody around to hear it except for a puppy that looked about 8 months old and the surrounding wildlife.

* * *

AN: I tried to keep the abuse and threats on the same level as canon. I figured if Aunt Marge said things like he should have been drowned at birth like how she did with her defective dogs, then she most likely cracked a whip or did other things similar to scare her dogs into obedience. She would not have whipped Harry here.

Uncle Vernon manhandled Harry a lot in the books. Harry was shaken, thrown into his cupboard, and his cousin would be encouraged to beat him up. There was also mention of Aunt Petunia hitting him with a frying pan in the books.

This story is meant to be light and fluffy, however. It will get better in the next chapter.

To current and future readers - The Boy With No Name is my top priority story. I mostly write that one up. Raising my new pup and teaching both my dogs commands in Harry Potter spells has really made me want to write this one, though. It will be updated only when I feel like adding the next chapter, and I will be writing as I go. As with my other story, there is no firm storyboard, but there is a vague sense of what I want to do with it. Unlike the other one, however, this will have no beta. I have severe physical illnesses with major memory problems, so you may encounter things like repeated sentences or scenes, or unfinished sentences when I forget what I'm doing irl, zone out, then come to and continue writing without realizing I've 'lost time.'

Chapter 2 will probably be posted shortly unless I forget that I am writing =P


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